The loveable Tasmanian born Juma is the saving grace of this inane and juvenile adventure where misogynistic MacDonald Carey immediately shows his chauvinism to newly arrived doctor Rhonda Fleming and is immediately proven right. She gets flustered when caught in a swarm of locusts (literally running into it) and on several occurences gets Carey into danger, either with a charging mother rhino, stampeding elephants or hungry large cats. He's already frustrated with Juma whose refusal to shoot an animal for consumption prevents the camp from getting fresh meat. Juma, like Sabu in "The Jungle Book", has a camaraderie with pretty much every animal, even getting the leopards and lions to purr when he's around.
Having seen Juma in the Victor Mature/Janet film "Safari" (same year as this), I was entranced by his sweetness. He's more dramatic here, being taken hostage by a vengeful former member of Carey's camp who mistreated the animals, causing him to be fired. Juma and the colorful photography are the stars here with Carey unlikable (certainly not Dr. Tom Horton here) and Fleming's character inconsistently written. All it takes is Carey seeing Fleming through his binoculars gushing at nature as if she was the African Snow White.
The sudden presence of a rather droll family of British visitors (with wife Eleanor Summerfield doing a Joyce Grenfall impression) adds a bit of comedy but it stops the plot dead in its tracks. This is still entertaining in spite of the obvious flaws and tensions that nature can bring on at a moment's notice but it just rings as completely forced. It's obvious that this film will end the same way that "Safari" did, but I must say that if I was in Africa and found someone as kindly as Juma, I wouldn't be treating him as horribly as Carey does in the beginning only to realize maybe when it's too late of how horrible he's been.
Having seen Juma in the Victor Mature/Janet film "Safari" (same year as this), I was entranced by his sweetness. He's more dramatic here, being taken hostage by a vengeful former member of Carey's camp who mistreated the animals, causing him to be fired. Juma and the colorful photography are the stars here with Carey unlikable (certainly not Dr. Tom Horton here) and Fleming's character inconsistently written. All it takes is Carey seeing Fleming through his binoculars gushing at nature as if she was the African Snow White.
The sudden presence of a rather droll family of British visitors (with wife Eleanor Summerfield doing a Joyce Grenfall impression) adds a bit of comedy but it stops the plot dead in its tracks. This is still entertaining in spite of the obvious flaws and tensions that nature can bring on at a moment's notice but it just rings as completely forced. It's obvious that this film will end the same way that "Safari" did, but I must say that if I was in Africa and found someone as kindly as Juma, I wouldn't be treating him as horribly as Carey does in the beginning only to realize maybe when it's too late of how horrible he's been.